In Ayodhya after the completion of the great Yaga all the invitees. left and Rishyashringa also left along with his wife Shanta. Dasharatha spent his life happily and peacefully waiting for the great day.
The great happy event occurred in the twelfth month (in) Chithra Kausalya gave birth to Rama the protector of the world and who was the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Rama was born under the star whose deity is Aditi in other words the star was Punarvasu, which means that the moon was at the Punarvasu star. Valmiki being a great astronomer gives several interesting and important astronomical details. He says that Rama was born in Karnataka Lagna and the five planets were in exaltation and the planet Jupiter and the Moon were rising together. So the time should be close to 1 p.m.
Even now Sri Ramanavami is celebrated in April (Tamil month Chithra) on the ninth day after the new moon. However, the star may be or may not be Punarvasu. It is also generally celebrated after 12 noon.
Next Bharata was born to Kaikeyi under the star Pushya in Meena Lagna and Sumitra gave birth to the twins Lakshmana and Shatrughna both of them were born in Karnataka Lagna under the star Ayilya.
This shows that they were all born at one-day intervals because the stars are changing in that order. As regards Lagnas there are 12 of them and they each have a duration of about 2 hours. So depending on the time of birth, the Lagnas will change. Valmiki describes that the four sons shone bright like the stars Poorattadi and Utrattadi. Probably these two are the brightest among the 27 stars that we have in our system. The moon is supposed to spend one night at each star and thus we have 27 days in a Lunar month. Most if not all Hindu festivals follow the lunar calendar.
The whole of Ayodhya celebrated the birth of the sons to the king. The streets were full of people dancing and playing musical instruments and singing. Here again, we have a reference to music and musical instruments showing the antiquity of our music.
There were various types of singers. Those who sang in praise of the king were called 'Sootas'; Vandis sang the praise of the dynasty. They all were generously gifted by the king. Several Brahmins were also given gifts.
The naming ceremony was conducted after the eleventh day. Kausalya's son was named Rama, Kaikeyi's son Bharata and Sumitra's sons Lakshmana and Shatrughna. Vashishtha conducted the ceremony.
It is generally accepted that Rama was born on the ninth day of the bright half of the moon in the month of Chitra (while the moon was waxing). However, Valmiki simply says that it was the ninth day in Chitra (Chaitre naavamike) and there is no particular mention of the moon waxing or the white period or Sukhla Paksha but it is generally accepted as such. One possibility could be that the month started with the New moon and the full moon came at the end of that month. Another indication is the time of the moonrise which is mentioned as after mid-day. This can happen only for the bright fortnight Navami.
Valmiki says that the event happened after twelve months though it should have taken nine months. Did Valmiki mean twelve months after the Yaga was performed? If one assumes that the queens became pregnant sometime after the Yaga was finished then it could be understood well. It is important to note this detail.
If on the other hand 'dwadase mase' were to be taken as the adjective of Chitra month then one could understand this as follows. Chitra as we all know is the first month of the year at present. So it appears that in those times, Chitra was the twelfth and the last month. So obviously Vaigasi (Vaishakha) should have been the first month of the year. By the way, it is mentioned also in The Mahabharata that the month Margazhi (Margashira) was reckoned as the first month of the year. In fact Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that He was like Margazhi in months!
Let us go back to the astronomical details given by Valmiki on the day Rama was born. These details about the position of the planets and the day being the ninth after the New moon all are important because they help us to determine the time that configuration had occurred. This then proves the historicity of Ramayana and also helps us to decide the chronology. For a long time, the Western pundits of Indology had treated our Ithihasas as pure myth and they were likened to children's stories. Thanks to the computer, which is capable of performing complex and lengthy calculations in a matter of seconds, it is now possible for us to simulate these astronomical data and determine the time when they occurred. Several groups of specialists have been working on such problems and have come to some conclusions about the chronology of these events. One also uses the details about the genealogy given in Ramayana and Mahabharata to cross-check the results.
When Valmiki mentions five planets one should remember that the Sun and the Moon are also considered planets. In my opinion, this is not wrong because what is said as "Graha" in Sanskrit could mean just celestial objects. The translation of Graha as a planet is probably not exact. Besides we know that now a planet has to satisfy some conditions and even Pluto is no longer considered a planet because more and more objects are being discovered which go around the sun and are not given the status of planets.
Another problem to determine the exact date is that the time being cyclic the exaltation of the planets mentioned would occur periodically, say, in periods of a few thousand years. So the calculations would give more than one solution as regards the year. Several experts have worked on this problem recently. The westerners and some Indians who followed their Western gurus put the date close to 1500 BCE. There is no reason why they could not have gone still further back in time. In fact, some western pundits even conclude that Ramayana happened after Mahabharata, which we now know, is absurd for the simple reason that Veda Vyasa has made reference to Ramayana in his work the Mahabharata. To cut short the long account on this subject let me say that recent calculations by specialists give 4439 BCE, 5649, 7343 BCE, and 10205 BCE as probable dates. There is no general agreement between them. The last result obtained by N.P. Ramadurai is held as an authority in Astronomy and Hindu Panchangam. Some support is found in the fact that Valmiki describes elephants with three and four tusks in Sundarakanda and such animals could have existed only in the remote past. So in conclusion we could safely say that Rama did live in a period which is not later than 4400 BCE. This conclusion also agrees with the result that the Mahabharata period was around 3000 BCE because from the genealogy of the kings it appears reasonable to suppose that the time interval between the Incarnations of Rama and Krishna is about 1500 years.
This kind of calculation by some also indicated that Rama was born in January and not in April as presently celebrated. This slipping of the season has been attributed to the precession of the equinox. A full discussion of such details of course is beyond the scope here. It is my humble opinion that it would be pointless to fight on this issue and I think that it is far more profitable to draw from the fountain of Ramayana, knowledge of greater utility.
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